PROLOGUE: Before today I had played 2 larger scenarios (with 3 players both times) that, in mid-late game) felt like endless grinds of number crunching and remembering and misremembering stats. After those 2 plays it seemed a lot more cumbersome than zombicide and abilities seemed cool but just meant endless tallying on my fingers and restating phrasing. Overall my group liked it but I felt a little put off by the things I stated.

TODAY: had some free time and set up Scenario 2. Figured it was short enough that I could play it. Also I wanted to try Sicarius on his own, we had played him in a bigger game and he never got to use his special skill and the party wiped in turn 2. I figured solo his special skill would always be in effect (+2 swords in any attack seems legit)

1st run. Opened a door. Spawned a guard patrol of dwarf defenders who had chainmail as an item. They ambushed me in the hall so I couldn't move. And with my longsword I could do no damage in the first turn of combat. They hurt me with their counter attack and killed me in their activation. I spawned a wandering monster nightmare (thing I think).

The next round of combat I managed to kill a minion but not the boss. I used the 1 xp to shadow walk into the room with chests to get some items. All of them turned out to be useless wands or javelins or bows. the boss and wandering monster closed on me and killed me as the spider danced away with ease. I packed it in and took my drubbing. Again. the first two rounds seemed critical and with a solo hero treasure can be almost useless if you get the wrong items.

2nd Run I went back at it. This time I got better items (nothing great but a battle axe to go with my longsword and some chainmail. But the monster spawns kept coming. I killed a few (knocking off the were-tiger and a bunch of gobbo archers) and got Charge as an ability. But so many guard spawns left the halls clogged with monsters and pretty soon I couldn't shadow crawl past them. I wasn't in danger of dying, but If I tried to pursue the spider I would have been dead because he was in the lighted corridor of tiles 2 and 3 and with my -2 armor in light zones it would have been suicide to pursue. I beat on some mobs as my quarry escaped again. I felt that there was little I could have done to change the outcome in this one.

3rd Run. I figured I'd try again because despite losing I felt some exhilaration at chewing through wandering monsters and small mobs. This time I took the mace as a starting weapon instead of the longsword (figuring more attack might get my farther if I didn't have to rely on armor rolls) I beat a pack of goblins early and got a shortsword. Got some armor from chests. and leveled up charge. Managed to kill the nightmare thing with a flame sword and got some spawns that were too far away to affect my early. I jumped on the spider in turn 3 and managed to do a couple of wounds and then shadow crawl away to avoid her brutal attack. she was right at the end in the exit corridor on the second tile so I could get out of line of sight. On the last turn I was down to 3 wounds and the spider had moved into a square with goblin guards but I charged in with 3 rounds of attack and a light mace. The scenario requirements just needed me to kill the spider and I succeeded with a turn to spare. I felt I was able to win this game due to a little more knowledge of how to work sicarius but mostly because I got decent treasure cards and the enemy that came out weren't too defense oriented. While it was fun to play I feel like both games were pretty much foregone conclusions because of the way I shuffled the cards and there was very little to do to undo it.

I still enjoy the game and will continue to play it, but I think there is still some balancing to be done